Subscribe to Candid Magazine

Afternoon Tea at Ametsa with Arzak Instruction

Afternoon tea offerings in London can at times be ever-so monotonous: finger sandwiches – tick; scones – tick. If you are ready to savour something more scintillating, then a visit to Ametsa with Arzak Instruction at COMO The Halkin is a must. Michelin-starred chef Sergi Sanz has created a unique Basque menu that replaces the typical sandwiches for savoury tapas and mini-desserts that taste as delectable as they look.

The decor is discreet and understated; it isn’t quite as show-stopping as other boutique hotel bars or the main restaurant area, but here they leave the food to be the star performer.

We started our Basque journey with a rich, comfort food of sweet corn soup with spider crab. It was a delightful surprise to discover significant chunks of fresh crab meat at the bottom of the glass. Whilst Green Pea Cuajada– a refreshing curd drink is the ideal palate-cleanser before you launch into the sweet section of the tea set.

Every single tapa was a culinary joy: ham croquettes oozed gooey creaminess, Idiazabal sandwich with onion chutney manages to make a cheese toastie into an elegant haute cuisine dish; whilst the broken eggs on waffle had delicate quail egg yolk soaking invitingly into the crisp mini-waffle.

The sweets were equally magical. A light parsnip cob cake was a work of art designed to resemble a sweet corn and similarly well-executed was the dropped rice pudding cone. Jackson Pollock would have been proud of these creations. The lemon sorbet with strawberry consommé was delicate and well-balanced without being overbearingly sweet. The orange toast had a wafer-thin slice of crispy spinach to help add to you five-a-day. By a slim margin, the outright winner was chocolate with churros: golden, crispy, petite, these are without a doubt the best churros you will find in London.

Ametsa with Arzak Instruction’s tea selection is extensive and supplied by the leading, premium tea supplier in the UK: Jing. The options are helpfully divided into white, green, black, fresh herbal infusions and herbal infusions tea – although, it would have been better if there was a short description of each tea next to their names. For example, Jade Sword was a bright and fresh green tea, which is very different from the dull, bitter supermarket variety; whilst Oolong Alishan is grown at a 1,600-metre altitude where the balance of humidity, temperature and sunlight produces exceptional flavour.